Trifold Sofa Drawer

[lakejumper]

On our recent trip I opened the sofa to make up the bed and found loose ball bearings on the floor along with a small greasy metal strip. Upon stopping at the dealer to get it fixed, they said that the left guide for the drawer had broken although it still worked. They showed me one from another RV with the same issue. Luckily, they have spare drawer glides/rails on hand and fixed it while I waited. I did a search on the forum and found several other owners who had the same issue. The drawer frequently slides open during travel and I thnk that the bouncing on the road may be putting pressure on the guides when it is in the open position. As someone had suggested, I had tried to push rubber doorstops against the drawer but they bounced out as well! Has anyone had this issue and come up with a good solution to keep the drawer from opening?

[exposurecontrol]

I'll be looking forward to that solution. Your timing of this post is good. I just found that small black strip with bearings intact lying on the carpet net to the couch after returning from a trip last week. Couldn't figure out what it came from. Now I know.

[2Evil4U]

Had the opposite issue on my Flagstaff. Drawer was very difficult to open and left slide failed. Ended up being the brackets supporting the slide were about 3/8" too far apart and were in a colossal bind. When the drawer was opened or closed it eventually pulled the guts out of the left slider. Home Depot had a better pair of slides for $12 and I riveted them in place of the originals. Then I removed one side of the slide mounting brackets and slotted the mounting holes with my death wheel. Now it opens and closes smooth as silk and the slide latches it closed firmly.

Also, the OEM rivets used a shank that was too long and installed backwards in my opinion. The rivets were installed from the inside of the drawer with the shank of the rivet through the slider. This allowed the extended shank of the rivet to interfere with the movement of the slider as well. When I reinstalled my new set I riveted the new ones from the slider side and used rivet washers on the inside of the drawer to increase the purchase of the rivet. No clearance issues.

[bubbles]

I had the identical issue with my sofa sleeper drawer. I installed one 2 inch piece of Velcro about 2 feet either side of center inside top lip of drawer and at drawer stop. Used self adhesive Velcro and also stapled in place. No issues since.

[lakejumper]

Bubbles & 2evil - thank you for the ideas. I will put some Velcro to hold the drawers closed and it is good to know that I can repair this if necessary when I'm out of warranty.